In this audio reprint from 2009, Mark Mitchell highlights key aspects of chemist and philosopher Michael Polanyi’s (1891–1976) conception of knowledge. Mitchell connects Polanyi’s ideaswith those found in Matthew Crawford’s book Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work (Penguin, 2010). Crawford insists, along with Polanyi, that knowledge cannot be reduced to explicit terms or rules (“technique”), and that the process of knowing requires participation in tradition and apprenticeship. Both men see technique alone as insufficient in facilitating real learning. Real knowledge is more of an art than a technique, they argue; it involves personal and communal experience. Finally, Polanyi and Crawford urge a return to a more balanced understanding of the relationship between the mind and the body.
This article is provided courtesy of Front Porch Republic, where it was first published on July 16, 2009. It is read by Ken Myers.
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Though largely ignored, the work of research chemist-turned-philosopher Michael Polanyi (1891–1976) offers rich insight into the methods of science, the role of belief in all human knowing, and the important connections between knowledge and responsibility. Tacit Knowing, Truthful Knowing explores Michael Polanyi’s criticisms of both objectivism and subjectivism, and his attempts to develop a more truthful understanding of how we know the world. His ideas are based on the belief that all knowledge is either tacit (silent and unspoken) or rooted in tacit knowledge.
This Report features interviews with leading interpreters of Polanyi’s thought, including Marjorie Grene, Richard Gelwick, Thomas Torrance, and Martin X. Moleski. Interviews with Nobel Prize-winning chemist Dudley Herschbach, educator Steven Garber, and master violin makers Peter and Wendy Moes, along with readings from Michael Polanyi’s books and correspondence, further illuminate his ideas.
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